Future Fender Jazz owner - what to look for ?

at the middle of he month I will receive a salary bonus from my employee, so I decided to pamper myself and get a MIM Fender Jazz

I would be my first Fender and probably (as I hope) my only one, so I want it to be perfect or close to it.

I plan to check the gear in store, so could you advise me what to check to avoid getting bad product ?

I know I have to check if the is low action and the frets generate no buzz. I also plan to check if the knobs work fine without any distortions. Are there any other things should I look for ? Unfortunately I won't be able tocheck the sound very well, as I didn't have any occasion to hear jazz live

This question might be silly for you but I'm not experienced in gear checking and I would like to avoid getting faulty product.

High action and fret buzz are things that can be adjusted out of any bass as long as the truss rod and bridge are in good working order. My suggestion to you is to take someone who is knowledgeable with you that can help show you what to really look for and to keep the store from selling you something you shouldn't buy.

Well, first of all, congratulations on your first bass! There's actually pretty little to worry about, so don't over think your decision.

First of all, every modern bass is an instrument that is designed to be able to be setup in a lot of different ways... and that means that, barring very rare production problems, you will have an instrument that is more than capable of being set up to play very well for you.

So don't worry so much about the action and fret buzz. That all will be taken care of with the set up.

The problem, though, is that you probably don't know how to set up your bass yourself yet or even what you want out of a setup. That's OK. You'll know in time.

The store you buy the instrument from will give you a setup as part of the sale of the guitar. This will likely be a pretty cursory setup, but it'll do you for a while, hopefully. But guitars are metal and wood under a lot of pressure, they "drift" frequently. Get used to the idea that your guitar will need to be professionally setup until you learn how to do that yourself, if you ever actually decide to undertake that learning. A lot don't, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Me, for instance, after having played guitar and bass for over twenty years, can do some of my setup myself, which saves me money, but there are some things I don't attempt and frankly, the pro setups are pretty much always better than mine.

The Mexican made Fenders are of high quality. Don't fear and over think it, it would be good to take a bassist with you, but if there aren't any glaring flaws, and there almost certainly won't be, you'll be all good with whatever guitar catches your attention.

"Now if i knew such person, i would'nt asking on a forums, wouldn't i?"

Wow. A little harsh from someone that assumed that the action had to be low and there had to be no fret buzz and the knobs shouldn't distort to even consider buying the bass. You came here and asked questions and I gave you an honest answer. If I knew that little about something I was going to spend a decent amount of money on, I would take someone knowledgeable with me. If you feel that you can figure it out with some answers off the internet, that's cool.

"Now if i knew such person, i would'nt asking on a forums, wouldn't i?"

Wow. A little harsh from someone that assumed that the action had to be low and there had to be no fret buzz and the knobs shouldn't distort to even consider buying the bass. You came here and asked questions and I gave you an honest answer. If I knew that little about something I was going to spend a decent amount of money on, I would take someone knowledgeable with me. If you feel that you can figure it out with some answers off the internet, that's cool.

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It was not my intention to be harsh, but the advice you have given me was kind of obvious.

I know that the best thing to do at this situation is to pick some musician to check the instrument for me, but unfortunately - being self taught home wannabee player - I do not know anyone who could do this for me.

Navigate youtube videos with bass players through decent head phones, attach URL, and there are plenty of people who can suggest maybe a sound you are looking for. A jazz bass might not at all be what you want.

All I can tell you is pretty much standard TB wisdom, if you can't have help picking one, try as many as you can, you should eventually find one that feels just right. Don't sweat over your inexperience, just go with your gut, it usually can get you going in the right direction. Don't sweat a bad setup either necessarily, that is generally something that can be fixed. But then again, if it just doesn't feel right, then try another. The more basses you try, the more likely you are to find one that fits.
And as others have said, check the controls, the tuners, check to see that there's nothing loose or missing,
EDIT: Agree with the others, no need to be rude to someone who's only trying to answer your question and help you out. Not cool.